More than Half of Government-Accepted Business Proposals Require Legal Amendments... Urgent Need for National Assembly Support

KCCI Proposes 312 Improvements Over 20 Months... 105 Accepted by Government
26 Accepted Tasks Under Improvement... 14 Require Legislative Support from National Assembly

More than half of the regulations that the government is improving after receiving recommendations from the business community require legislative amendments by the National Assembly. Industrial field demands, such as easing the prior review burden for manufacturing and importing small quantities of research and development (R&D) chemicals, have not been addressed since the bills proposed in the 21st National Assembly were discarded. Allowing self-refueling of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) vehicles is also pending legislation in the National Assembly.

On the 30th, the amendment to the Educational Broadcasting Corporation Act (EBS Act), one of the "Broadcasting Four Laws," is being passed in the plenary session of the National Assembly. Ruling party lawmakers abstained from the vote. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

On the 7th, the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) announced that the Regulation and Investment Difficulty Reception Center had identified 312 issues over the past 20 months and submitted them to the government. Among these, 105 cases (33.7%) were accepted by the government.

When categorized by type, the submitted issues were management difficulties (45.5%), investment difficulties (18.3%), new industries (12.2%), environment (12.2%), labor (9.0%), and location (2.8%). Among the 105 accepted issues, the acceptance rates by type were highest for location (55.5%), investment difficulties (38.6%), new industries (36.8%), environment (34.2%), and management difficulties (30.3%). The acceptance rate for labor difficulties was 17.9%. The KCCI explained that the relatively low acceptance rate for labor issues was due to significant concerns about conflicts of interest and the need for prior social consensus. Examples of regulatory improvements completed in the first half of the year include ▲improvements to umbrella and parasol sewing condition regulations ▲raising the building coverage ratio and floor area ratio limits for facility expansions in green areas within R&D special zones.

Of the 105 government-accepted issues, 79 (75.2%) have been resolved. For 26 issues (24.8%), improvement measures requiring legislative amendments are underway. Among these 26 issues, 14 (53.8%) require legislative support from the National Assembly. These include ▲easing the prior review burden for manufacturing and importing small quantities of R&D chemicals ▲allowing self-refueling of LPG vehicles. Although the Ministry of Employment and Labor agreed to accept the review of small quantities of R&D chemicals, regulatory improvements have not been made since the Industrial Safety and Health Act amendment bill proposed in the 21st National Assembly was discarded. The bill related to allowing self-refueling of LPG vehicles is still pending in the National Assembly.

The KCCI urged that as the government's regulatory reform system accelerates, the National Assembly should also speed up legislative regulatory improvements. According to the OECD Product Market Regulation (PMR) index, South Korea's ranking improved to 20th last year, the highest ever. It had fallen from 21st in 1998 to 33rd in 2018 but rose to 20th last year. However, the pace of legislative support by the National Assembly remains relatively slow. Since the launch of the Yoon Seok-youl administration, about 100 of the 223 regulatory innovation bills submitted to the National Assembly have been discarded.

Kang Seok-gu, head of the KCCI Research Division, said, "We expect not only the government but also the National Assembly to provide legislative support for the issues raised by the center and promptly improve regulations," adding, "The center also plans to actively address difficulties faced by companies on the ground."

Meanwhile, since this year, the center has strengthened its function of receiving field difficulties along with conducting comprehensive surveys to identify thematic issues. In the first half of the year, it submitted 131 thematic issues, including killer and livelihood regulations and advanced industry regulations, to the government. The center plans to continue its comprehensive survey-based issue identification and recommendation activities in the future.